Archifilade City March Urban Design Research Cluster 17 / Large City Architecture Zhaoyue Zhang / Mengshi Fu / Chenyi Yao / Ren Wang RC 17 Tutors: Daniel Koehler / Rasa Navasaityte
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Archifilade City Zhaoyue Zhang, Mengshi Fu, Chenyi Yao, Ren Wang
Can machines compute a subject-oriented architecture? Here, we investigated into the classical motif of the Enfilade as a spatial form of organization based on individual experiences. This type of building is referred as subject-oriented architecture, and the form of architecture chosen here is enfilade space. This study mainly looks at the transitional status of architectural composition of “less and more” as a form of thinking by associating classical architectural theory with typical cases, contemporary architectural concept and technology, advanced analysis in computational method and digital architecture.
Why Enfilade? When traveling through complex spaces, walking routes trigger the actual experience of all senses: a few rays of light penetrating the darkness, alternating heat and cold fluctuations, echoes of one‘s own footsteps, and the smell of the sun baking stones. The sum of all these sensations is a simple aesthetic adventure, which we usually do not recognize. But that‘s the charm of enfilade. When we walk in museums or other places like enfilade, we do not walk aimlessly. Some people walk and visit step by step according to the direction of light. Some people have a strong purpose and go straight to a painting or a statue that they are interested in. The enfilade is a series of rooms that are visually aligned with each other. The interconnected rooms are arranged in a row on the plan, and each room leads to the next room. The enfilade is a linear arrangement of several repetitive spaces. Exhibition buildings such as museums and art galleries often arrange the enfilade as a visitor‘s route. Not only because the enfilade is a good transportation space in the building, but also because the transparency of enfilade, allowing visitors to see the other end at one end before entering the space, so as to choose whether to enter this space. This kind of enfilade space is, obviously, subjective. There are various intersections of Large City Architecture: When Numbers Dwell
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1.02 Fig 02 In architecture, an enfilade is a suite of rooms formally aligned with each other. 03 This series of diagrams describe the most essential definition of the spatial arrangement using our concept of enfilade. How to use the way of machine learning to count the number of enfilades is the starting point of the program. There are some examples of several ways to organize the enfilade space from an objective perspective. 4
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Gruszczynski, R. and Varzi, A. (2015). Mereology then and now. Logic and Logical Philosophy, 24(4), p.409. Carpo, M. (2018). Excessive resolution. Architectural Record, 206(6), 135-136.
enfilade space everywhere, but where to go through is decided by people themselves. Today, enfilades are occasionally included in contemporary houses because they offer a nice sense of flow through the space. From a macro perspective, “less and more” is a one-to-one correspondence to the concept of “part and whole”, in which “less” is equivalent to “part” and “more” corresponds to “whole”. In the meantime, there is a specific and subtle relationship between “more” and “less”, indicating that parts and whole cannot be simply divided into two parts. Large quantities of different individuals form the whole part governed by a series of organizational principles. In addition, Daniel Kohler also demonstrated a shifting of principle between “part and whole”, suggesting that both parts and wholes are unstable and undergo constant changes subject to influence of surrounding environment. Therefore, the true value will be missed if the “part and whole” are judged separately (Gruszczyski, 2015).
Subjective_Internal Enfilade How can one evaluate architecture to distinguish between excellent design or poor design? The general architectural design is based on an objective principle. Architects are accustomed to designing with objective factors such as plane and budget. There are many architectural design methods that provide an objective framework for architects to design buildings. But architecture is for human. Apart from objective factors, can architects design buildings from the perspective of people, which means, from the perspective of subjectivity? Subjective means one can be influenced by personal feelings, tastes, or opinions. Here enfilade can be referred as a type of space as the exploration of subject-oriented designing. In the past, designers build buildings with simple geometries. Shapes like rectangle and circle can be easily measured, evaluated and drawn on the blueprint. Regardless of diverse shapes and materials, designers can simplify them to one supposedly uniform element, for example, a brick. The limitation of the building technology restricts the unpredictable complexity of architecture (Carpo, 2016). View enfilades can be visualized as lines. How to arrange these view lines 6
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1.05 Fig 05 Collection of some enfiladas with close subjective views and open subjective views.
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is another way to study combinations of enfilade. Lines can be played in all directions and can have diverse intersections. According to the lines which have been made to a cluster, group combinations can be applied into lines. Therefore, the lines can have various types of group combinations, achieving diverse cluster design. Based on historical enfilade studies, an arch is a beautiful shape and a classical element. Especially, applying a classical element in premodern architecture must be a dramatic contrast and unique compared with common buildings. To study diversity of arch views, one geometry of three-dimensional arches is designed as basic element. There are arch holes opened on the floor and the wall. When elements connected with each other, arch holes can form enfilade space from three directions. Later considering navigations and three-dimensional connections, diverse arch enfilade views can be collected. For three-dimensional figuration, it is not only to show the enfilade in the horizon and vertical, inclines can also be arranged to make enfilade visible. With three-dimensional property of basic element, it is possible to achieve flexible rotations and combine with each other in different inclines. Through this way, various interesting views will be generated. Several horizontal and vertical group combinations can be arranged randomly to form a new big cluster. These clusters also maintain the characteristic of arch enfilade, at the meanwhile, have intersections and share space of different enfilade group combinations. As well these clusters can be supported by themselves. The understanding of enfilade is explained from three perspectives: subjective, objective and ventilation. In each part of the study, we have thoroughly implemented the principle of mereology by starting from a small part or element and then using computing for machine learning, so as to consider the building in an enfilade way and automatically achieve urban generation. Based on mereological thinking, the study begins with small geometry. Enfilade form can be simply seen as an enfilade corridor synthesized by a series of doors. It can be found that the distance between the two doors determines the quality and effect of the enfialde. This meaning has a direct connection to the shape of the view frame. It is a superposition of the characteristics of both the external environment and Large City Architecture: When Numbers Dwell
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1.09 Fig 06-07 This enfilade group is more active and organic than a common building, connecting nature and the city to the human inside the cluster as well. 08 This group is designed for creating more squares on floors, providing people with more open space for social activities. 09 Human perspective rendering of the enfilade view inside the building to show organic life. 10
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1.11 Fig 11 The enfilade line is generated first, and each group organizes the arrangement based on the line.
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1.12 Fig 12 The figures show various combinations of lines so that a variety of building spaces can be created.
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1.17 1.18 Fig 13 Building group generated by several enfilade space. 14 Lines abstracted from the model to show paths of enfilade space. 15 One type of conceptual enfilade group. 16 Lines abstracted from the model to show paths of enfilade space. 17 Another type of conceptual enfilade group. 18 Lines abstracted from the model to show paths of enfilade space. 14
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the internal enfilade. This means that as soon as one of the two changes, the meaning of subjective backgrounds will change. The interior space of the building consists of a number of enfilades of different frames. The external environment is also composed of many different small scenes. In this way, with the combination of two and two, the people in such a building who are under the reinforcement of the form of enfilade, will have many different subjective definitions of the outside environment, which greatly enriches the experience of people in the building. From the small enfilade group to a larger scale arrangement, it is a new exploration of view frames. When forming a large building, an arrangement contains a number of enfilades of different shapes of frames. An enfilade can be regarded as a space for a certain function. So many enfilades mean that there can be multiple functions in a same arrangement, or different designing presentations of one certain function. Having discussed the relationship between a single geometry and a frame, how about the connection between an arrangement from single geometry and a frame? There are eight arrangements here and the corresponding panorama of framing views of to explore this problem.
Objective_External Enfilade The figure is an abstract result of several enfilade lines. At this time, the subjective visual effects of enfilade can be analyzed by an intuitive and computable line. When conducting a larger-scale group study, the following arrangements were mapped out. In this way, the organization of the enfilade can be abstracted in a line manner. In short, the objective enfilade refers to the external composition, which is outline of the whole building, spatial organization and logical order, etc. The subjective aspect of enfilade is the humanity of enfilade. The purpose of the project is to achieve both aspects in the research. Specifically, this study aims to satisfy the subjective aspect of visualization while accomplishing the objective goal of organizing the composition of the enfilade in a certain order. For the perspective of computational thinking in subjective enfilade, people have different distances to each door, so their visions are also different. In this way, the depth of the enfilade can be well quantified, so calculations Large City Architecture: When Numbers Dwell
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Fig 19 A simple element can be rotated in three-dimensional space and continuous navigation can still be achieved. 20 Series of single space can enclose a square. 21 Multiple spaces can combine for a large group in three directions. 22 It is a simple conceptual model of the enfilade, which shows the continuous order and arrangement, explaining the concept of enfilade from an objective perspective. 16
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1.24 Fig 23 In environments that experience minimal wind, or where a qanat is impractical, a windcatcher can be used to function as a solar chimney which allows hot air to travel upwards and escape from the top of the building. 24 Different enclosure forms, length, and width of corridors can create different scales of space inside and outside walls. Different variables can be quantified to calculate wind speed changes and final values conveniently. 18
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can be autonomously carried out to achieve different effects of the enfilade. Enfilade is a common method of spatial sequence management of traditional buildings. It allows people to see the picture cut or framed by close-range frame at a certain viewing point, and incorporate appropriate sky blank, so that the composition is perfect. The key to the formation of whiteness lies in the appropriate control of visual angle and visual angle, so as to make the near-form richness and the far-reaching momentum skillfully blend, complement each other, be fascinated, and give people rich visual artistic feelings. In fact, it reflects the application of ancient aesthetic experience in the space combination of buildings. To be frank, it is in the process of architectural observation from far-reaching and near-form, starting from the enfilade point, the visual stimulation of the porch begins to increase, and the internal details of the building begin to attract visual attention. That is to say, enfilade point is the transition point from potential contour perception to shape detail perception, that is, from the visual scanning of the contours of various parts of the building to the visual attention of specific details. This shift of visual attention with the change of visual distance is the result of selective attention mechanism screening due to the difference of visual significance of the target of attention.
Air-jective Enfilade Natural ventilation has become an increasingly effective way to reduce energy use and consumption, support eligible indoor environmental quality and keep a healthy, comfortable, and resultful indoor climate, rather than mechanical ventilation which is more commonly used way. In the advantageous climates and buildings types, natural ventilation can achieve the same effect with air-conditioning plants, and 10%-30% of the total energy consumption can be saved. In the case of the internal and external opening of the building through the hyperwriter, it is very beneficial for us to realize a mechanically free building through natural ventilation. The most basic power of natural ventilation is the wind pressure and thermal pressure. In areas with good external wind conditions, wind pressure can be used as the primary means of achieving natural ventilation. In large numbers of non-air-conditioned buildings in China, the wind pressure, as a Large City Architecture: When Numbers Dwell
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common means of building treatment, can be adopted to promote indoor air circulation of buildings and improve the quality of indoor air environment. Based on the experimental data, Givonni has proposed a general correlation method to calculate the average indoor air speed in rooms with a square floor plan and with same upwind and downwind openings located in the opposite walls. On the basis of this way, the average speed of wind inside the room is calculate by the following expression. In the vertical direction of the building, solar chimney is employed. The combination of solar stack-assisted and wind-driven ventilation is the principle of the solar chimney. The air in the chimney expands due to solar heating and is relatively light, rising from the chimney exit and introducing cold air into the interior by opening windows. The push effect from the surrounding wind further complements the pull effect. The pressure difference of the chimney which promotes the air movement is the combination of the different density and the height of the interior environment and the surrounding environment. The stack height and the temperature difference are in direct proportion to the pressure difference. Because of solar irradiance, the heat leads to the temperature difference in the stack ventilation assisted by solar. According to research results, solar chimneys can be implemented in cloudy, hot and humid tropical areas. I will show the picture to analyze the performance of tropical solar chimneys by changing the design parameters and exploring their influence on indoor air temperature and speed. Here, the concept of in-wall and between walls is introduced. In this design, I hope that the wind has two walking routes. To be specific, the main route is through the wind pressure via each enfilade space. Nonetheless, according to our calculation, the wind will gradually decrease and get small. At this time, the wind in the in-wall and the wind in the open space courtyard will supply the wind in the room. What is more, a closed rotating door is provided on each wall to adjust the opening and closing of the door according to the wind pressure condition in the room and to create a comfortable indoor microclimate. Apart from the wind supply in the in-wall and semi-open spaces, there is also a solar chimney. When the wind speed is reduced to nearly zero through each room, the wind can be brought to the upper space by solar chimney. Due to solar heating, the air in the chimney expands, becomes relatively lighter, rises out of the chimney outlets, and draws the cooler air into the interior through the fenestrations. Large City Architecture: When Numbers Dwell
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Fig 26-28 Three single elements are selected to be basic buildings to form large scale architecture. They are designed with different scale space, such as ventilation space, bedroom, balcony and so on. 29 The final proposal combines the objective, subjective and air-djective, which creates a physical, visual connection between the formal and informal ends without influencing the feature or definition of the independent rooms. 22
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Fig 30-35 Here are six subjective enfilade views from six enfilade groups with different functions, such as office, residence, hotel and so on. Frames with different sizes and different scales play different roles in the building. This form eliminates the frame and has a completely transparent and open feeling, allowing people in the building to fully feel the freedom of nature. 24
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According to three different navigation of wind, there are many different parameters affecting the performance of the ventilation. I put each variable in the small unit of the combination. Specifically, the first parameter is the size of the room. Different room combinations can be used to obtain diverse room sizes. According to the previous formula, the wind speed of the room can be calculated. The second is that wind creates a wind of different strengths through the straightness of the wall. The previous formula shows that when the wind enters the room vertically and parallelly, it consumes 37% of the wind. As the wind enters the next room vertically, it consumes 51% of the wind. In order to make it visible, I add the color coding to give different colors with different wind speeds. In this way, we can clearly see the rate of change of wind through various spaces. In the vertical direction, by changing the height and its width, solar chimney can obtain different wind lifting effects, so as to suck in different winds from the window.
Cities in the Future The versatile community or city not only needs to make full use of resources and space, but also provides people with a community that combines work, home, shopping, transportation and even green space together. Even the concept of this mixed-function city allows users to flexibly change, add or reduce building functions over time. Such examples can be found in the squares of the old market in ancient Rome, where shops, apartments, offices and libraries are mixed. Mixed-use buildings are intended to combine multiple functions into one complex building. Regardless of the combination, it can be used for a variety of purposes in a building or a small building group. Buildings with multiple uses can adapt to the diverse needs of modern people and create a resource-rich community. This architectural mode helps architects rethink how modern urban spaces should be designed. At this time, the designer needs to consider how the different functional buildings should be combined. One of the most efficient and feasible methods is to design the building elements for each function and then combine them in some established system. The three-dimensional prefab designed in previous chapter can be applied to this certain building for later reproduction. Large City Architecture: When Numbers Dwell
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1.37 Fig 36-37 Building groups generated based on enfilade views.
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1.39 Fig 38-39 Building groups generated based on enfilade views.
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1.40 Fig 40 Arrangement study of enfilade facade.
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1.41 Fig 41 Arrangement study of enfilade facade.
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